Propagation Characteristics of Power Line Communication Signals Along a Power Cable Having Semiconducting Layers

The propagation characteristics of power line communication (PLC) signals along a single-core power cable having two 3-mm-thick semiconducting layers are studied using the finite-difference time-domain method for solving Maxwell's equations. It turns out that a PLC signal of frequency 30 MHz suffers significant attenuation particularly when the conductivity of the semiconducting layers is around σ = 0.001 and 1000 S/m, while it suffers little or less attenuation when σ is lower than about 10
^-5
S/m or σ is around 1 S/m. The mechanisms of the significant attenuation around σ = 0.001 and 1000 S/m are discussed.